THE WILD WESTERNERS

(director: Oscar Rudolph; screenwriter: Gerald Drayson Adams; cinematographer: Gordon Avil; editor: Jerome Thoms; music: Duane Eddy/Lee Hazlewood; cast: Elizabeth MacRae(Crystal Plummer), Marshall Reed (Sheriff Henry Plummer), Nestor Paiva (Governor John Bullard), Guy Mitchell (Deputy Johnny Silver), James Philbrook (Marshal Jim McDowell), Nancy Kovack (Rose Sharon), Duane Eddy (Deputy Marshal Clint Fallon), Hugh Sanders (Chief Marshal Reuben Bernard), Bob Steele (Deputy Marshal Casey Banner); Runtime: 70; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Sam Katzman; Four Leaf Production; 1962)

“The frontier Western is routine and adequate.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Longtime TV director of the Brady Bunch series Oscar Rudolph(“The Rocket Man”/”Don’t Knock the Twist”) ably helms this low-budget B Western. It’s scripted by Gerald Drayson Adams, and is set in 1864 in the Montana territory. The U.S. marshal Jim McDowell (James Philbrook) is fooled into marrying the stranded showgirl Rose Sharon (Nancy Kovack), but soon falls in love with her. En route to Virginia City to investigate a series of gold robberies of Union shipments to army forts, they are attacked by Sioux. The marshal’s life is saved by his bride. When the marshal reaches Virginia City, he suspects that the local Sheriff Plummer (Marshall Reed) and his deputy Johnny Silver (Guy Mitchell) are the stagecoach robbers and killers of the drivers. The deputy kidnaps his wife to hold her hostage until the stagecoach gold shipment is delivered to his gang, Jim replaces the gold with explosives, as he prepares it for delivery to the gang. Meanwhile the Sioux attack and kill Silver and his boys. Jim then rescues his wife from the gang.

The frontier Western is routine and adequate.

REVIEWED ON 4/19/2017 GRADE: B-